Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-08-27
z SELLING A PICTURE.
HOW THE COMMERCIAL ARTIST
 MANAGES TO MAKE. MONEY.

He Sells Paintings With Comparative
 Ease, While the Man of Talent Gets
 Left-Tooting . Worthless Picture-An
 Anxious Artist.
 It is proposition commanding assent as soon as 1t Is stated that the best and most skillful artists do not sell the greatest number of pictures or receive the largest sums of money for their worh Generally speaking, it is the artist who is the best salesman who gets rid of the most wares It is the con- msrcial drummer who can paint who puts the greatest amount of colored canvas on the market Of course there are certain facts which go to qualify this statement, but, talk ing the whole question of selling pictures in their entirety and ignoring details for . mo ment, this statement may be allowed to stand as substantially true.
 The advantage which e maker of bad paintings who possesses what Is called busi- ness push and energy has over an artist who lacks these qualifications, and an artist usu- ally does lack them, is the widespread ignor- ance of art among the public and the utter innocence among great many picture buyers of what constitutes a good picture. There are people buying pictures today, and who have started in to make a collection, who are in very much the situation of those abund- sntly financed young ladies who go into some of the dry goods stores uptown and, approach ing one of the counters, engages in the follow ing conversation:
 ~Hsw much is that jacketi It b very pretty, isn't itI"
 ~Yes," replies the sffable saleswonlan, "1t is pretty. That jacket is ell 25n
 "Only s1l25l It can't be very nice"
 And the strawberry and cream complex toned customer is about to turn away, an eI- pression of contempt for such plebeian prices fitting across her pretty face.
 ~Oh," says ths quick Saleswoman, ~thess have been reduced. But we have some mere expensive ones"
 And after going through familiar pro cess, the guileleS young thing pays S%O or 70 for garment very little, if any, better than the first one which was shown her.
 And it is the same way with these artlSis and the people who come to them to buy pic tures. If the srtist has that kind Of business sense and morality which manufactures good opinion for his pictures by placing an sb- surdly high price on them, he manages to sell of a goodly number of them. The purchasers esteem them at the value which the artists who have painted them put on them, and buy them because they are high priced The prics asked is about the only standard whereby they can measure them And then the following dialogue occurs between the scion of the purchaser and the scion of a rival picture buyer and collector:
 Master Brown, aged 6-My pa has got s magnificent picture m our gallery. It was painted by Rosa Bonheur, and cost 5000
 Miss Smith, aged 5-My pa has got & better picture than that It cost S9,O0O, aud was painted by my uncle George Washington Smith.
 That squelches the olive branch of the Browns, and his opinion of Rosa Bonheur Is ruined forever. At all events the artist of the Horse Fair compares with c. W. Smith as 5000 compares with 5000.
 TRYING TO SELL A PICTURE
 Keeping in mind the ignorance of the every day picture buyer, il is obvious that the young artist who has real talent and who has the modest opinion of his own work with which real talent is usually in company, has a great deal of difficulty in getting started He cannot go up to a canvas of bis and say: "Sow that Is a great picture-a really great picture. I ask $500 for that When l am dead and cannot paint any more like it that painting will bring $500 at auction
 He cannot toot artistic work in any such barefaced way, and yet it is this kind of toot- ing which sells pictures to a man who knows that his personal judgment on a composition isn't worth a row of pins He accepts the other mans judgment, the judgment of the artist. the salesman-in point of fact of the commercial drummer who Is trying to sell 6 bill of bis own goods The drummer's bold assertion touches his imagination. appeals to his cupidity, and be buys the picture for $500 which may be worth a tenth of that amount while at that very moment there are pictures hanging in studios around town which are really works of art, and which would not se unworthy companions of the Millets. the Corots, the Salvator RoSSss. the Daubignys and the Geromes which have been purchased on the advice of disinterested picture dealers
 The persiStency of these commercial artists has furnished the basis of a good many anec- doteS which are retailed at art receptions and Bohemian suppersL A favorite story is of one fellow who had been in hard luck for some time, who captured a would he picture buyer in his attic studio. but had unfortunately nothing in hand which struck the fancy of the customer. After vainly expatiating on his wares and failing to make a sale he begged to make suggestions for pictures in the hope of securing commission and payment on nc count But the collector was not impressed and moved toward the door, followed by the eager and impecunious artist As the artist followed him down the stairs be stopped the | patron, now anxious to be of, with appeals to inspect suggestions for pictures which h. hastily outlined on the wall with a piece of charcoal which he had carried with him from the rooms In this way he followed the man town four flights of stairs and the passage was decorated with .ketches throughout its l entire length, so that tt looked like the pre- l liminary drawings tor a panorama. Tho picture buyer vas obdurate, however, ano the artist went back to his room, rubbing out his sketches with his coat sleeve as be as cended. New York Mail and Express